14th at Mox Mania 1k Legacy (Madison, WI) with Esperblade

[Arsenal]

So after scrubbing out hard at SCG Open Milwaukee last weekend, I was craving redemption; enter yesterday's Mox Mania's 1k Legacy at Mox Mania game store in Madison, WI (hometown of Dark Confidant). Me and three of my teammates piled into my Corolla and took the 1.5 hour drive out. We stopped at a McDonalds to demolish the Egg McMuffin meal, talked some strategy, then got to the store where a sizeable number of people were already registering and we did likewise. This is what I submitted:


Maindeck - 60

1 Vendilion Clique
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Stoneforge Mystic

1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Engineered Explosives

1 Counterspell
2 Spell Pierce
3 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares

1 Ponder
1 Vindicate
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Lingering Souls

3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Scrubland
1 Karakas
1 Academy Ruins
2 Island
2 Marsh Flats
3 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand

Sideboard - 15

1 Darkblast
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Perish
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Force of Will
2 Spell Pierce
1 Zealous Persecution
3 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Disenchant

So basically Vidi's GP Denver list, but with some minor tweaks to the sideboard; yeah, pretty unexciting, but that's just how I roll. Anyway, there were 47 players, so 6 rounds of Swiss, then cut to Top 8. This report is all off of memory, so I apologize if I get minor details incorrect.

Round 1 - Merfolk

Game 1: I open with turn 1 discard to see her hand of fish, lords, and Mutavaults; I frown as I dislike this matchup and grab the cheapest fish she has. She proceeded to drop fish after fish while I struggled to keep pace; 3x Silvergill Adept was super good for her in this game. After eating Islandwalking beats for an eternity and dropping to 5 life, I'm able to almost stabilize with an Academy Ruins + Engineered Explosives, but she drops her hand of 2x 2cc dudes on an empty board and I'm one mana short to recur EE, cast EE for 2, and then pop it; I elect to draw a fresh card and pray for Supreme Verdict... it was not to be. -3 Force of Will, -1 Vindicate, +2 Spell Pierce (I saw Standstill from her at some point in the game and I wanted to be able to Pierce her turn 1 Vial), +1 Darkblast, +1 Zealous Persecution. I wasn't too sure about Zealous as her lords make it irrelevant quickly, but if she had a bunch of x/1 guys on board like she did Game 1, it would be sweet.

Game 2: Basically, she gets stuck on 1 blue source for 5 turns while I develop of board of Spirit tokens, Jace, and Batterskull. After some number of Batterskull beats, she scoops. This game wasn't really Magic due to her being stranded with a ton of non-blue mana producing lands, but I suppose that Merfolk's awkward manabase can just lose the game for them sometimes. No boarding changes.

Game 3: She goes turn 1 Vial that resolves. I drop a land and pass. She drop turn 2 Lord that resolves. I play turn 2 IoK which she Forces pitching Standstill. As she's being very aggressive with Force, I think she must really want whatever she's holding so I Pierce the Force and see her hand of Reejerey and lands; I grab the Reejerey leaving her with lands in hand, and a lonely Lord and Vial on board; I feel like I should get there... but no. I proceed to draw 1 land in the next 4 turns while she peels 4 straight creatures that I cannot effectively answer. I die.

0-1 in Matches.

Round 2 - Esperblade

Game 1: My opponent gets super mana flooded and cannot answer my SFM, Batterskull, Jace board. This game was over very quickly. After experimenting with sideboarding plans last week at SCG Open Milwaukee with the mirror match, I stuck to the "traditional" boarding changes of -3 Force of Will, -2 Swords to Plowshares for +1 IoK, +1 Disenchant, +1 Zealous Persecution, +1 Darkblast, +1 Nihil Spellbomb.

Game 2: He turn casts turn 1 discard, turn 2 Meddling Mage naming my Counterspell that he saw a turn earlier, then proceeds to drop Stoneforge Mystic -> Jitte, and starts getting there with Jitte equipped to Meddling Mage. I find an answer to Mage, but not to his god damned Geist of Saint Traft that he casts. I was left helpless as I could not deal with his Geist at all. Although I died a short time later, this was an interesting game as I too boarded in Geist of Saint Traft last week at SCG Open Milwaukee and beat my Esperblade opponent in Game 2 solely off of Geist. It was good to see that others are thinking that Geist has value in the mirror even though he bucks conventional thinking. No changes for boarding.

Game 3: I open with 2x land, 2x discard spells, 1 Snapcaster. KEEP all day. I discard him a couple times, but get stuck on the 2x lands I opened with for the next few turns. There is a pivotal point in the game where he's holding nothing but garbage (courtesy of my eariler discard spells), but topdecks Stoneforge and fetches Batterskull; if I topdeck land, I can Snapcaster -> Thoughtseize and grab his Batterskull... but it was not to be. I draw a non-land and know that this game is effectively over. He then drops Jace and Thoughtseizes the Jace I'm holding. I scoop as his Jace hits +13 loyalty.

0-2 in Matches. I'm told that x-2 can still finish in the money, so I'm determined to go 4-0 in the next 4 rounds.

Round 3 - Enchantress

Game 1: This sucks as my opponent is one of my teammates that drove down with me, but I suppose that's what I get for going 0-2. So I mulligan down to 5 cards on the play while he keeps his 7; not a good start to my dreams of finishing 4-2. I open with Underground Sea, Academy Ruins, IoK, Vindicate, Stoneforge Mystic; pretty good 5 if I do say so myself. I turn 1 IoK and see terrifying enchantments that will completely null and void any hope of winning through combat, so I elect to grab his Solitary Confinement as that's his earliest answer to my potential Jace. He drops Forest -> Wild Growth, pass. I lay my Academy Ruins and pass. He taps his Forest and plays Utopia Sprawl on the Forest and also lays Mirri's Guile; it's looking pretty grim for me. He passes and I draw... a Plains. Thank you Jesus. I lay my Plains and cast Vindicate on his Forest, leaving him with 0 mana on board. He draws into Savannah and Guiles a few turns, but his Guiles do not turn up additional lands, so Stoneforge -> Batterskull quickly ends things. I feel bad as I know he was on tilt from his Round 1 match and probably wasn't playing as best as he could. -4 StP, +1 IoK, +1 Force of Will, +2 Spell Pierce.

Game 2: I open with a strong hand of discard, SFM, EE, and Jace. I EE away his turn 2 Enchantress, counter his Sterling Grove later on in the game (he had nothing else on board), and he's left durdling around as I drop Jace and start fatesealing (I didn't want him to draw into his singleton Jace answers like O. Ring, Pithing Needle, E. Tutor, etc). He scoops.

1-2 in Matches.

Round 4 - Doomsday

Game 1: I open with lands, Brainstorm, Jace, and Souls. My opponent fetches a turn 1 Swamp -> Duress. I'm not sure what he's on, but figure that my Jace is more important than anything else, so I Brainstorm in response and see Force of Will and a 2nd Souls, so I put Jace and Force on top and show him 2x Souls and lands. I draw into Force of Will and flashback my discarded Souls. He drops Sensei's Divining Top off an Island, so I put him on UBx Control. I start going on the Souls beatdown plan and cast Jace; he Jedi mindtricks me HARD and furiously Tops, fetches, Tops, Brainstorms, etc making me think he's digging for a counter... Jace resolves, so I really put him on some UBx Control now. I Jace Brainstorm a few times, but see nothing but StPs and lands. I get my opponent down to 5 life courtesy of The Spirit Express and pass. He then casts SILENCE on me which resolves; I'm caught off guard, but since I never found a blue card to pitch to Force, it really wouldn't have mattered either way, so I can only sit there as he combos out and Tendrils me for a billion. I have never played against Doomsday before, so it was interesting to see the pile and ways the cards interacted with each other. -4 StP, -1 Vindicate, -1 EE, -1 Supreme Verdict, -3 Lingering Souls, +3 Geist of Saint Traft, +1 Force of Will, +2 Spell Pierce, +1 IoK, +2 Surgical Extraction.

Game 2: I think there may have been an early discard spell or something, but that was pretty much all the action as the next 3-4 turns we slowly sculpt our hands. The turning point was when he Burning Wished for Doomsday then discarded my Surgical Extraction leaving me with Snapcaster and lands in hand; I'm dead next turn unless I rip something AMAZING... like a topdecked Thoughtseize. I cast Thoughtseize on him, grab his Doomsday, then Snapcaster Mage -> Surgical Extraction targetting his Doomsday. He scoops as he has 0 Doomsday left in his 75 cards. No boarding changes.

Game 3: I Force of Will his turn 1 Sensei's Divining Top. I drop turn 2 Stoneforge and grab Jitte; he eot Chain of Vapors the Stoneforge, he then Cabal Therapys naming Jitte. I then drop turn 3 Geist of Saint Traft and he's visibly worried as he has no Top and he's staring down a legit clock. He cantrips and resolves Top while I resolve Jace. I get him down 7 life with Geist and Jace on board. I misplay, forget about his Top, and Fateseal him... so he Tops in response, bleh. I see LED from Fateseal and let him keep it with two unknown cards in his hand. He draws the LED and starts cantripping. He has to crack his fetch (6 life now) in order to see a fresh 3 cards off Top. He digs and digs, casts Wish and pops LED, but cannot find an answer to my Geist in his sideboard.

2-2 in Matches.

Round 5 - Goblins

Game 1: I open with a reasonable hand of Stp, a couple land, and I think a Brainstorm. He drops turn 1 Lackey on the play and I StP it. He then stumbles on mana and is only able to cast 1 Goblin per turn which I'm able to answer via Counterspell, Snapcaster -> StP, etc. I then develop a Spirit heavy board and drop Jace. He starts resolving Ringleaders, but gets horrid reveals and never gets enough gas to get going. -3 Force of Will, +1 IoK, +1 Darkblast, +1 Zealous Persecution.

Game 2: I keep a sketchy hand of lands, EE, and Clique. He leads with Turn 1 Vial. I drop EE @ 1 counter. He drops Mogg War Marshall and passes, I blow up EE on my second turn. He then starts swinging in with Tokens and tutors up a Ringleader with Matron. I drop Lingering Souls. Souls allows me to stall the game long enough to get SFM -> Jitte and draw into a Jace that I can reasonably protect with more Souls tokens. There was a pivotal point in the game when he had 3 1/1 guys out and he casts Chieftain to try to kill my Jace; I cast Zealous Persecution in response to Chieftain and that was pretty much game right there. I get Jitte counters online and start bouncing my own Clique with Jace in order to draw step Clique him and make sure anything he drew/Matroned is bottomed.

3-2 in Matches.

Round 6 - RUG Delver

Game 1: I keep a good hand of discard, removal, and Souls. I'm on the play and turn 1 discard his Delver (he's holding a 2nd one) and see the other usual RUG Delver suspects like Stifle, Bolt, etc. Since RUG Delver is so threat light, I really want to make sure his threats are dealt with, forcing him to burn cantrips on digging for threats. I play around his counters and StP his 2nd Delver. I Souls a couple times and start getting there. I think an EE on his Goyf happened and he scooped.

Game 2: I keep a creature heavy hand and hope I can just push out SFM -> Batterskull through his counterwall. He draws 2x Tropical Island and see no other lands for the rest of the game. A late discard spell shows me that he's holding 2x Bolt, 2x Chain Lightning, 2x Ancient Grudge, 1x Stifle. I grab Stifle then resolve Jace afterwards. I start Fatesealing and it's over soon after.

4-2 in Matches. 14th place out of 47 is good for $25 cash.

Props

+ 3/4 of us finishing in the money slots.
+ Nice, friendly opponents throughout the day.
+ Good store to trade/sell/buy from.

Slops

- 1 bathroom... ugh.
- A lot of my games won/lost were through manascrew or manaflood. It dulled some of my experience knowing that some matches weren't even playing Magic.
- My teammate not realizing he could've drawn into Top 8 until it was too late.

[Ayotte]

I believe I played vs. two of your car-mates. Enchantress w/ RIP round 1 (still kinda feel iffy about that match) and a UR delver player who said he was friends with the enchantress player. Both of them very cool guys. Hope to see you around more. I think Mike is planning on running these tournaments bi-monthly.

[EradiKate]

Hey, congrats on the top 16 finish! I was your first round opponent, glad to see it turned around for you after our match.

[defector]

Well done!! Thanks for coming down and making our event a success:))
cheers
defector